[Answered] A cable-car crisis this week threw a spotlight on India’s rapid response infirmities. Preparedness for such incidents is required. Elaborate.

Recently, over 40 people got trapped mid-air in cable cars in Jharkhand’s Deoghar, later rescued by relief teams. The Indian Air Force had to mount a rescue mission. Though the incident has been termed as a ‘unique accident’ or ‘statistical rarity’, the event highlights the challenges associated with the rapid response mechanisms. Rapid response mechanisms are generally understood as troops that are on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame.

 Issues linked to rapid response system:

• No timely practice: A rehearsal rescue operation had to be conducted apart from the annual maintenance, daily maintenance and half-yearly maintenance. But these were ignored mostly.
• Poor co-ordination: There is a lack of co-ordination between different departments of the govt, govt. and civil society, and intelligence agencies.
• Paucity of trained forces: Lack of search and rescue facilities and poor community empowerment are some of the factors.
• Limited financial resources: This sector continues to suffer from limited financial resources.
• Lengthy decision-making procedures: Rapid responses obviously also require rapid decision-making otherwise hampers the ability to react quickly when confronted with an urgent crisis.

What can be done?

• Response time improvement: Response time is very crucial in incidents like road accidents, so there should be information sharing and interoperability among different stakeholders.
• Tech- enabled system: Innovation is more than improving existing methods, processes or products; it must also encompass finding the best, fit-for-purpose solutions to achieve identified outcomes.
• Preparedness arrangement: Coordinated action is essential when preparing for rescue operations. This includes the development of plans or arrangements based on risk assessments preparedness and response.
• Emergency number: In digital era, it is very essential to develop a dedicated application platform for guidance of citizens about rescue services and for this an emergency service number like America’s 911 should be provided.
• Financial management: More funds should be allocated to increase the rescue personnels and for this private investment in these operations is need of the hour.

Nothing in this world is more vital than life itself. Such kind of mishap is disheartening and shows the negligence and inefficiency of rescue operations. India has improved a lot in disaster response as well as in extracting citizens struck abroad but there is need of improvements in rescue operations as well.